Systems and methods for managing available bandwidth in a household

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for managing available bandwidth in a household are provided. A request to access a first media asset is received. A determination is made as to whether a bandwidth currently available in the household is sufficient for enabling access to the first media asset. When the bandwidth currently available in the household is insufficient for enabling access to the first media asset, a search is performed for a second media asset currently consuming a portion of the household bandwidth needed for enabling access to the first media asset. A third media asset is identified having a remaining duration that is more than a remaining duration of the second media asset. A message is displayed that indicates the bandwidth currently available in the household is insufficient to access the first media asset and that has an option to access the third media asset instead of the first media asset.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/195,042, filed Nov. 19, 2018, now allowed, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/707,580, filed Sep. 18, 2017, nowU.S. Pat. No. 10,171,853, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/955,345, filed Dec. 1, 2015, now U.S. Pat. No.9,800,907, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by referenceherein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

In conventional systems, users have access to a plethora of mediacontent. However, access to the media content is limited by theavailable household bandwidth of the user. Users often encountersituations where access to requested content is restricted or severelydegraded because the available household bandwidth for accessing therequested content is insufficient. This typically occurs when one userin the household is accessing content that consumes most of theavailable bandwidth, which prevents other users from accessing othercontent. Conventional systems leave users frustrated in these situationsas the user is unable to access the requested content and the systemsfail to provide alternate content-viewing plans to the user.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for managingavailable bandwidth in a household. In some embodiments, a user mayrequest to access a media asset that needs to consume more bandwidththan is currently available in the household. As a result, the systemmay identify another media asset that is currently consuming a portionof the household bandwidth. Specifically, the system may identifyanother media asset that is consuming a portion of the householdbandwidth that is needed by the requested media asset. The system maydetermine how long it will be until the media asset currently consumingthe bandwidth ends, at which point the household bandwidth portionneeded by the requested media asset will be freed up. Based on thislength of time, the system may recommend to the requesting user analternate media asset to consume from another source (e.g., broadcast orequivalent music or news service that is not interfering with bandwidthusage) while waiting for the media asset currently consuming thebandwidth to end. In some implementations, the alternate media asset maybe selected based on how much time remains in the alternate media assetrelative to how much time until the media asset currently consuming thehousehold bandwidth ends. In other cases, the use of an Internet-relatedalternative that is associated with minimal bandwidth consumption suchas a music or still news images from the Internet can be provided.

In some embodiments, a request to access a first media asset is receivedfrom a user device. A minimum bandwidth value for accessing the firstmedia asset is retrieved from stored metadata associated with the firstmedia asset. The minimum bandwidth value is compared to a householdbandwidth value. The household bandwidth value indicates a bandwidthcurrently available in the household. In response to determining thatthe minimum bandwidth value is greater than the currently availablehousehold bandwidth value, bandwidth consumption values stored in abandwidth consumption field of a household bandwidth state database aresearched to identify a second media asset, being accessed in thecurrently available household, that is associated with a bandwidthconsumption value that exceeds a difference between the minimumbandwidth value and the household bandwidth value. A determination ismade of a time remaining for completing access to the second mediaasset. Duration values stored in a duration field of a media assetdatabase are searched to identify a third media asset associated with aduration value that is more than the time remaining. A message thatindicates the bandwidth currently available in the household isinsufficient to access the first media asset and that has an option toaccess the third media asset instead of the first media asset isgenerated for display on the user device.

In some implementations, a user selection of a quality associated withthe first media asset is received. The stored metadata is processed toidentify the minimum bandwidth value that is associated with theselected quality.

In some implementations, an initial value for the household bandwidthvalue is stored in the household bandwidth state database. A request toaccess the second media asset is received before receiving the requestto access the first media asset. A minimum bandwidth value for accessingthe second media asset is retrieved from stored metadata associated withthe second media asset. The minimum bandwidth value for accessing thesecond media asset is stored in the bandwidth consumption field of thehousehold bandwidth state database associated with the second mediaasset. The initial value for the household bandwidth value isdecremented by the minimum bandwidth value for accessing the secondmedia asset.

In some embodiments, the bandwidth available in the household isassociated with a first network. In some implementations, the messageincludes at least one of an option to access the first media asset froma second network and an option to access email.

In some embodiments, the time remaining is determined by retrieving fromthe household bandwidth state database a current play position of thesecond media asset. A difference between a duration of the second mediaasset and the current play position is computed to determine the timeremaining.

In some implementations, the second media asset is provided by anon-demand content source and the third media asset is provided by abroadcast content source.

In some implementations, the message includes an option to terminateaccess to the second media asset in order to enable access to the firstmedia asset. In some implementations, the duration value of the thirdmedia asset represents how much time remains in the third media asset.

In some embodiments, searching the duration values includes identifyingan attribute of the first media asset. Attributes stored in an attributefield of the media asset database are searched to identify a list ofmedia assets associated with an attribute corresponding to theidentified attribute of the first media asset. The duration valuesstored in the media asset database are searched for the list of mediaassets.

In some embodiments, a request to access a first media asset isreceived. A determination is made as to whether a bandwidth currentlyavailable in the household is sufficient for enabling access to thefirst media asset. When the bandwidth currently available in thehousehold is insufficient for enabling access to the first media asset,a search is performed for a second media asset currently consuming aportion of the household bandwidth needed for enabling access to thefirst media asset. A third media asset is identified having a remainingduration that is more than a remaining duration of the second mediaasset. A message is displayed that indicates the bandwidth currentlyavailable in the household is insufficient to access the first mediaasset and that has an option to access the third media asset instead ofthe first media asset. In some embodiments, the message includes anoption to enable shared access to the second media asset.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods and/orapparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance application listings in accordance with anembodiment of the disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen that may be used to manageavailable bandwidth in a household in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure; and

FIGS. 6-12 are flow diagrams of an illustrative process for managingavailable bandwidth in a household in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for managing availablebandwidth in a household. In some embodiments, a media guidanceapplication may receive a user request to access a first media assetfrom one or more users in a household. Families or users often have userequipment devices (e.g., set-top boxes) placed throughout the household.A family's or user's household may even include multiple homes. Asreferred to herein, the term “household” should be understood to mean ahome or homes associated with a user.

The media guidance application may determine the available bandwidth inthe household needed to access the first media asset. The media guidanceapplication may determine that the bandwidth currently available in thehousehold is insufficient for enabling access to the first media asset.In response, the media guidance application may search for a secondmedia asset currently consuming a portion of the household bandwidththat is needed for enabling access to the first media asset. The mediaguidance application determines how much time remains for accessing thesecond media asset and may identify a third media asset having aremaining duration that is more than the time remaining for accessingthe second media asset. The media guidance application may display amessage, to the user who requested access to the first media asset,which indicates the bandwidth currently available in the household isinsufficient to access the first media asset and that has an option toaccess the third media asset instead of the first media asset.

With reference to media assets or content, the amount of contentavailable to users in any given content delivery system can besubstantial. Consequently, many users desire a form of media guidancethrough an interface that allows users to efficiently navigate contentselections and easily identify content that they may desire. Anapplication that provides such guidance is referred to herein as aninteractive media guidance application or, sometimes, a media guidanceapplication or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded oncomputer-readable media. Computer-readable media includes any media ormedium capable of storing data. The computer-readable media or mediummay be transitory, including, but not limited to, propagating electricalor electromagnetic signals, or may be non-transitory including, but notlimited to, volatile and non-volatile computer memory or storage devicessuch as a hard disk, floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards,register memory, processor caches, server based storage (e.g., cloudstorage), Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wired or wireless device, and/or combination of the same.In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facingscreen and a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, smart watch,automobile screen, or multiple angled screens. In some embodiments, theuser equipment device may have a front facing camera and/or a rearfacing camera. On these user equipment devices, users may be able tonavigate among and locate the same content available through atelevision. Consequently, media guidance may be available on thesedevices, as well. The guidance provided may be for content availableonly through a television, for content available only through one ormore of other types of user equipment devices, or for content availableboth through a television and one or more of the other types of userequipment devices. The media guidance applications may be provided ason-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or as stand-aloneapplications or clients on user equipment devices. Various devices andplatforms that may implement media guidance applications are describedin more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, dataused for generating metadata associated with media assets, a householdbandwidth state database, a media asset database, guidance applicationsettings, user preferences, user profile information, media listings,media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcast channels,titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parental controlratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information, actorinformation, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos, etc.),subtitles, media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections. The static reading material stored, forexample, on an e-book reader (e.g., a Nook), maybe stored in the smarttelevision or comparable device and loaded upon request from the usersuch that the static reading material delay the video watching until thebandwidth is freed up.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show illustrative display screens that may be used toprovide media guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 and5 may be implemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform.While the displays of FIGS. 1-2 and 5 are illustrated as full screendisplays, they may also be fully or partially overlaid over contentbeing displayed. A user may indicate a desire to access contentinformation by selecting a selectable option provided in a displayscreen (e.g., a menu option, a listings option, an icon, a hyperlink,etc. or voice command) or pressing a dedicated button (e.g., a GUIDEbutton) on a remote control or other user input interface or device. Inresponse to the user's indication, the media guidance application mayprovide a display screen with media guidance data organized in one ofseveral ways, such as by time and channel in a grid, by time, bychannel, by source, by content type, by category (e.g., movies, sports,news, children, or other categories of programming), or otherpredefined, user-defined, or other organization criteria such asrecorded content that may not take any of the available bandwidth.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid program listings display 100 arranged bytime and channel that also enables access to different types of contentin a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with: (1) a columnof channel/content type identifiers 104, where each channel/content typeidentifier (which is a cell in the column) identifies a differentchannel or content type available; and (2) a row of time identifiers106, where each time identifier (which is a cell in the row) identifiesa time block of programming. Grid 102 also includes cells of programlistings, such as program listing 108, where each listing provides thetitle of the program provided on the listing's associated channel andtime. With a user input device, a user can select program listings bymoving highlight region 110. Information relating to the program listingselected by highlight region 110 may be provided in program informationregion 112. Region 112 may include, for example, the program title, theprogram description, the time the program is provided (if applicable),the channel the program is on (if applicable), the program's rating, andother desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive a userselection of a first on-demand media asset (e.g., for access from afirst communications network such as a cable on-demand communicationsnetwork). For example, the media guidance application may receive a userselection of a program listing displayed in grid 102 corresponding tothe first on-demand media asset. The media guidance application mayretrieve metadata associated with the first on-demand media asset toidentify a minimum bandwidth consumption value of the selected firston-demand media asset. In some implementations, the first on-demandmedia asset may be associated with multiple versions (e.g., the firstmedia asset may be available in high-definition (HD) or standarddefinition (SD)). In some implementations, the HD version of the firstmedia asset may be associated with a higher minimum bandwidthconsumption value than the SD version of the first media asset.

As defined herein, the phrase “household bandwidth” means the amount ofdata that can be communicated to one or more users in the household overa given period of time via a given communications network. For example,household bandwidth may represent how much data one or more users canreceive or send per second through an on-demand cable communicationsnetwork.

The media guidance application may query a household bandwidth statedatabase to determine the current state of the household bandwidth. Itshould be understood that in the context of the present disclosure, thehousehold bandwidth state database maintains the household bandwidthstate for a particular communications network (e.g., a cable on-demandnetwork). In other implementations, bandwidth state may be stored in thesame or a different database for one or more other communicationsnetworks. Specifically, the media guidance application may determine howmuch bandwidth is currently available in the household for accessingmedia content. The media guidance application may compare the currentlyavailable household bandwidth to the minimum bandwidth value associatedwith the selected first on-demand media asset. If the availablehousehold bandwidth is greater than the minimum bandwidth valueassociated with the selected first on-demand media asset, the mediaguidance application may access the first on-demand media asset anddisplay the media asset to the requesting user. If the availablehousehold bandwidth is less than the minimum bandwidth value associatedwith the selected first on-demand media asset, the media guidanceapplication may query the household bandwidth state database to identifya second on-demand media asset that is consuming the householdbandwidth.

The media guidance application may determine whether the bandwidthconsumed by the second on-demand media asset is greater than adifference between the minimum bandwidth value associated with the firstmedia asset and the currently available household bandwidth.Specifically, the media guidance application may determine whether thesecond media asset is consuming an amount of bandwidth that is missingfrom the currently available household bandwidth to enable access to thefirst media asset.

The media guidance application may determine when access to the secondon-demand media asset will end, at which point access to the firston-demand media asset will be available. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve from the bandwidth state database an indication of whenaccess to the second media asset started. The media guidance applicationmay retrieve from a media asset database a value indicating a length orduration of the second media asset. The media guidance application maycompute a difference between the current time and the time when accessto the second media asset started to determine how much time has elapsedsince the second media asset has been accessed. The media guidanceapplication may compare the elapsed accessed time of the second mediaasset with the duration of the second media asset to determine orestimate how long until access to the second media asset will end.

The media guidance application may search a media asset database for athird media asset that has a remaining duration that corresponds to theestimated length until access to the second media asset ends. The thirdmedia asset may be available from a second communications network (e.g.,cellular LTE network or cable broadcast network or over-the-air antennasource) different from the first communications network (e.g., on-demandcable network) from which the first media asset was requested to beaccessed. The media guidance application may select a third media assethaving an attribute that is similar to an attribute of the firston-demand media asset. In some implementations, the third media assetmay be a linear media asset that does not consume as much as or any ofthe available household bandwidth that the first media asset consumes.In some implementations, the third media asset may be a media asset thatis accessed through a second communications network (e.g., LTE) thatdoes not consume available household bandwidth of the firstcommunications network. In such circumstances, the third media asset maybe a version of the first media asset that is accessible through adifferent communications network. The media guidance application mayperform this search by retrieving metadata indicating one or moreattributes of the first media asset and identifying, in the media assetdatabase, a list of candidate media assets that share some or all of theattributes of the first media asset. From the list of candidate mediaassets, the media guidance application may identify as the third mediaasset one of the media assets that has a remaining duration thatcorresponds to the estimated length until access to the second mediaasset ends. The media guidance application may generate for display amessage 510 (FIG. 5 ) which identifies the third media asset to theuser. The user who requested access to the first media asset may accessthe third media asset while waiting for the bandwidth to becomeavailable. Specifically, the user who requested access to the firstmedia asset may access the third media asset until access to the secondmedia asset ends.

The media guidance application can also provide access to displaybandwidth speed test. This function and display is very intriguing forthe user to actually be able to view the current bandwidth consumption.This test can be used to show (through access from the guide), theactual consumption in real time and as a function of what shows arebeing “turned on” (viewed) or “turned off” (paused). As a userdetermines that another user is using the bandwidth (bandwidth hog), itcan become increasingly requested that the user wants to see the currentbandwidth consumption. The user can load up the speed test, accessedfrom the guide and then show the “bandwidth hog” how much the speeddecreases when the “bandwidth hog” pauses their show.

Display 100 may also include video region 134, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 134 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 134 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming or subscription plan), is currently available for viewing,will be available for viewing in the future, or may never becomeavailable for viewing, and may correspond to or be unrelated to one ormore of the content listings in grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also befor products or services related or unrelated to the content displayedin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may be selectable and provide furtherinformation about content, provide information about a product or aservice, enable purchasing of content, a product, or a service, providecontent relating to the advertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may betargeted based on a user's profile/preferences, monitored user activity,language spoken in the household, the type of display provided, or onother suitable targeted advertisement bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting a program and/or channel as a favorite,or purchasing a program, a subtitles setting, or other features. Optionsavailable from a main menu display may include search options, VODoptions, parental control options, Internet options, cloud-basedoptions, device synchronization options, second screen device options,options to access various types of media guidance data displays, optionsto subscribe to a premium service, options to view other content whilewaiting for access to a given content which is consuming householdbandwidth to end, options to edit a user's profile, options to access abrowse overlay, or other options. The switching of the source from theon-demand to the over-the-air antenna content may alleviate thebandwidth issues for choosing the media asset. In some cases, the use ofa cable source as the alternative programming may be problematic if thecable source utilizes the bandwidth to receive cablecast programming. Inthis case, a physical mechanism may be placed in the user equipment toprovide access to over-the-air antenna channels without consumingadditional bandwidth through the cable source.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, www.fan.tv, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4 . Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2 . Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. Selection of option 204 may return the user togrid 102 (FIG. 1 ).

In display 200 listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listings 208, 210 and 212 mayinclude more than one portion, including media portion 214 and textportion 216. Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectableto view content in full-screen or to view information related to thecontent displayed in media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for thechannel that the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4 .User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306, detecting circuitry 320 and storage 308.Control circuitry 304 may be used to send and receive commands,requests, and other suitable data using I/O path 302. I/O path 302 mayconnect control circuitry 304 (and specifically processing circuitry306) to one or more communications paths (described below). I/Ofunctions may be provided by one or more of these communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4 ). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Control circuitry may also instruct detecting circuitry 320, which canbe used to detect and/or identify a user or users without requiring theuser or users to make any affirmative actions by using any suitablebiometric determination technique, such as facial determination,brainwave information, body temperature determination, heart ratedetermination, odor determination, scent determination, body shapedetermination, voice determination, language determination, behavioraldetermination, any other suitable biometric determination technique orany combination thereof.

Detecting circuitry 320 may include monitoring component 316 and powermanagement unit 318. Monitoring component 316 may include one or morecomponents (e.g., an EEG, EMG, pulse oximeter, etc.) for monitoring anactivity type (e.g., biometric state, location, or brainwaveinformation) of a user. As referred to herein, “location” refers to anyrelative or absolute identifier of a position, such as a geographicalcoordinate, vector for direction, street address, name of building, orany other suitable identifier. For example, a location may be indicatedby coordinates in a geographic coordinate system (e.g., latitude orlongitude), or a global positioning system (GPS).

It should be noted, monitoring component 316 may, in some embodiments,be located on a separate device in communication with the device uponwhich a media guidance application (and control circuitry 304) isimplemented. For example, in some embodiments, monitoring component 316may communicate with device 300 via a communications network (e.g.,communications network 414 (FIG. 4 )). In some embodiments, monitoringcomponent 316 may be a wearable device (e.g., a wristband, headband,watch, etc.).

Using microphones and voice recognition, control circuitry 304 maydetect or identify users based on the physical characteristics of theirvocal tract through voice recognition, language determination, or voiceidentification. Using a sound source and an array of microphones,control circuitry 304 may determine information about the shape of thearea surrounding the biometric device through acoustic localization,similar to the time-of-flight method described above in reference to IRlight. For example, a sound source may be located near an array ofmicrophones. A sound broadcast from the sound source may propagate as awave front away from the source. As the wave front impacts an object,portions of the wave front may be reflected toward the sound source andarray of microphones. Depending on the position of the object, thereflected sound may arrive at the microphone at different times. Forexample, the reflected sound may arrive at a closer microphone in ashorter amount of time than at a farther microphone. Based on the timeor phase difference in arrival time at various microphones, total traveltime of the sound, and positions of the microphones, it may be possibleto generate a spatial areal map. Locations of objects may be determinedbased on the spatial areal map generated via acoustic localization, IRtime of flight, any other suitable mapping method, or any combinationthereof. It should be understood that various biometric techniques anddevices may be used alone or in combination to supplement each other tomore accurately identify or detect users.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may respond toverbal commands or verbal input received from a user. Control circuitry304 may include a voice recognition engine or circuitry with a phonemeencoder to process verbal input from a user. In some implementations,the human language sounds (e.g., utterances) may be received with one ormore microphones and provided to the phoneme encoder of controlcircuitry 304. The phoneme encoder may convert the sounds into machinerepresentations of the sounds using a phoneme representation. In oneembodiment, the machine representations may be viewed as AmericanStandard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) representations of thephonemes, or the like, viewable as a sequence of alpha-numeric values.In one embodiment, the machine representations may employ symbols fromthe International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and/or extended sets adaptedfor use within a computer device.

As used herein, the term “phoneme” refers to a physical representationof a human language sound or utterance. Moreover, a phoneme is arepresentation of a sound of a language independent of its position in aword or phrase. Thus, phonemes represent sounds in the most neutral formpossible. A variety of written representations of phonemes are known inthe art, and, as such, virtually any representation may be used by thepresent disclosure. For example, in one embodiment, the phonemes may berepresented by alpha-numeric symbols such as those employed in theInternational Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), American Standard Code forInformation Interchange (ASCII) format, or the like. However, as noted,the disclosure is not limited to this mechanism, and others may be used.As used herein, the term “word” refers to a single distinct meaningfulelement of speech or writing that matches one or more phoneme sequences.

Control circuitry 304 may cross-reference a detected phoneme sequencewith a database (not shown) that maps each phoneme sequence to acorresponding action. For example, control circuitry 304 maycross-reference a detected phoneme sequence with a database (not shown)to detect that the user spoke a command to select a given media asset.

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. For example, storage 308 may be used tostore the household bandwidth state database that associates mediaassets currently being accessed with the amount of bandwidth the assetsare consuming. The household bandwidth state database may includemultiple entries. Each entry may include a media asset field andcorresponding bandwidth consumption, access start time, a play position,and/or duration fields. The bandwidth consumption field may indicate howmuch bandwidth the associated media asset is consuming, the access starttime field may indicate what time or when access to the associated mediaasset begins, play position field indicates the current play position ofthe associated media asset, and the duration field indicates a length ofthe associated media asset. The household bandwidth state database mayalso include an entry for the household bandwidth state with a fieldindicating how much bandwidth is currently available in the household.Nonvolatile memory may also be used (e.g., to launch a boot-up routineand other instructions). Cloud-based storage, described in relation toFIG. 4 , may be used to supplement storage 308 or instead of storage308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, microphone, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 maybe provided as a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements ofuser equipment device 300 or can be a projected image. For example,display 312 may be a touchscreen or touch-sensitive display. In suchcircumstances, user input interface 312 may be integrated with orcombined with display 312. Display 312 may be one or more of a monitor,a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD) for a mobile device,amorphous silicon display, low temperature poly silicon display,electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, active matrix display,electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathode ray tubedisplay, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescent display,plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display, thin-filmtransistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone application whollyimplemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device (e.g., and maycollectively be part of a household) or may be part of a network ofdevices. Various network configurations of devices may be implementedand are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a website accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” The contentpresented on the second screen device may be any suitable content thatsupplements the content presented on the first device. In someembodiments, the second screen device provides an interface foradjusting settings and display preferences of the first device. In someembodiments, the second screen device is configured for interacting withother second screen devices or for interacting with a social network.The second screen device can be located in the same room as the firstdevice, a different room from the first device but in the same house orbuilding, or in a different building from the first device. In someembodiments, the second screen device may provide verbal input to thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device may be athin client that cannot perform voice recognition or ASR but simplysends received utterances from a user to the first device. The firstdevice may include the capability to perform ASR on the utterancesreceived with the second screen device. In such cases, the first devicemay be a local or remote server. In some embodiments, the second screendevice may include full capability to perform ASR on a receivedutterance and may transmit (if necessary) the corresponding language tothe first device for further processing.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences,language, and other desirable guidance settings. For example, if a usersets a channel as a favorite on, for example, the web siteswww.allrovi.com or www.fan.tv on their personal computer at theiroffice, the same channel would appear as a favorite on the user'sin-home devices (e.g., user television equipment and user computerequipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, if desired. Therefore,changes made on one user equipment device can change the guidanceexperience on another user equipment device, regardless of whether theyare the same or a different type of user equipment device. In addition,the changes made may be based on settings input by a user, as well asuser activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G, XLTE, and/or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephonenetwork, or other types of communications network or combinations ofcommunications networks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately ortogether include one or more communications paths, such as, a satellitepath, a fiber-optic path, a cable path, a path that supports Internetcommunications (e.g., IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcastor other wireless signals), or any other suitable wired or wirelesscommunications path or combination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn withdotted lines to indicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG.4 it is a wireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid linesto indicate they are wired paths (although these paths may be wirelesspaths, if desired). Communications with the user equipment devices maybe provided by one or more of these communications paths, but are shownas a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and process verbal input.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4 .

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3 .

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative display screen 500 that may be used tomanage available bandwidth in a household in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. Screen 500 includes a message 510 that isdisplayed as a result of managing available bandwidth in a household.For example, as discussed above, message 510 may be presented inresponse to the media guidance application determining that there isinsufficient bandwidth available in the household for accessing a userrequested media asset (e.g., an on-demand media asset accessed throughthe on-demand cable network). In some embodiments, there may beinsufficient bandwidth available to access the user requested mediaasset because a second user (e.g., using a second screen device) isaccessing a second media asset (e.g., through the same on-demand cablenetwork).

For example, a first user may request to access a first media asset viaan on-demand cable communications network. Specifically, the first usermay request to access the show “Family Guy” on-demand. The mediaguidance application may determine that the minimum bandwidth to accessthe selected show “Family Guy” is 24 Mbit/s (24 megabits per second).The media guidance application may query a bandwidth state database todetermine how much bandwidth is currently available in the household toaccess a show through the on-demand cable communications network. Thedatabase may indicate that the currently available bandwidth in thehousehold is 10 Mbit/s. The media guidance application may determinethat 10 Mbit/s currently available in the household is insufficient toaccess the requested media asset as the requested media asset requires aminimum of 24 Mbit/s. The media guidance application may in responseperform a process (discussed below) to identify an alternate media assetto offer the first user to access until there is sufficient bandwidthavailable in the household to access the first media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may query thehousehold bandwidth state database to search for a second media assetthat is currently being accessed using the on-demand cablecommunications network. Specifically, the media guidance application maycompute how much bandwidth is missing from the currently availablebandwidth to enable the first user to access the requested media asset.For example, the media guidance application may compute a differencebetween the currently available household bandwidth of 10 Mbit/s and theminimum bandwidth required to enable access to the requested media assetof 24 Mbit/s. The media guidance application may determine that 14Mbit/s are missing from the currently available bandwidth and may searchfor a second media asset that is currently consuming at least 14 Mbit/sof the household bandwidth. The media guidance application may generatea query to the bandwidth state database for a list of media assetscurrently being accessed that are consuming at least 14 Mbit/s.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may process thereceived list of media assets currently being accessed that areconsuming at least 14 Mbit/s to identify the media asset having theshortest time remaining or duration. The identified media asset may beselected as the second media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the second media asset “Jurassic Park” iscurrently being accessed and is consuming 20 Mbit/s from the householdbandwidth. The media guidance application may also determine that asecond user who is accessing the second media asset began accessing themedia asset 2 hours ago and that the total duration of the media assetis 2.5 hours. Accordingly, the media guidance application may determineor estimate that in 0.5 hours, access to the second media asset will endand will result in 14 Mbit/s being added to or freed up from thecurrently available household bandwidth. At that time, access to thefirst media asset will be enabled because enough household bandwidthwill be available to satisfy the minimum bandwidth of the first mediaasset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may search a mediaasset database for a media asset having a minimum remaining duration of0.5 hours to offer the first user as an alternate media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may search a media assetdatabase for all media assets currently available via a differentcommunications network (e.g., a cellular network or broadcast network)than that associated with the first media asset and which have aremaining duration of at least 0.5 hours. In some implementations, themedia guidance application may filter the media assets currentlyavailable from a different communications to those that match at leastone attribute of the first media asset. In some implementations, themedia guidance application may select, as the alternate media asset torecommend to the first user, the media asset having the shortestduration of at least 0.5 hours remaining from the rest of media assetshaving a remaining duration of 0.5 hours. For example, the mediaguidance application may identify the media asset “Star Wars” that is1.5 hours long but that has been running for 1 hour. This media assetmay be determined to have a remaining duration of 0.5 hours which is theclosest duration to that remaining in the second media asset currentlyconsuming the household bandwidth.

The media guidance application may include a number of options inmessage 510. For example, message 510 may include an option to terminateaccess to the second media asset 520, an option to access an alternatemedia asset 530, an option to receive a reminder to access the firstmedia asset 540, and an option to share viewing of the second mediaasset 530. An exit option 560 may be provided to allow the user tocancel the request and return to the previous screen or media asset.

The option to terminate access to the second media asset 520 may allowthe user who is requesting access to the first media asset to terminatethe second user's access to the second media asset. Specifically, ifaccess to the second media asset is terminated, the available householdbandwidth may increase by a sufficient amount to enable access to thefirst media asset. In response to receiving a user selection of option520, the media guidance application may automatically terminate accessto the second media asset and begin accessing the requested first mediaasset. In some implementations, in response to receiving a userselection of option 520, the media guidance application may send arequest to the second user to stop accessing the second media asset. Thesecond user may, in response to receiving the request, stop accessingthe second media asset. As a result, the available household bandwidthmay increase allowing the first user to access the requested first mediaasset.

The option to access an alternate media asset 530 may allow the firstuser to access a different media asset from an alternate communicationsnetwork while waiting for the second user to finish accessing the secondmedia asset. After the second user finishes accessing the second mediaasset, the media guidance application may automatically present thefirst media asset to the first user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may select thealternate media asset for inclusion in option 530 based on an estimatedtime remaining in the second media asset being accessed by the seconduser and based on an estimated duration or time remaining in thealternate media asset. In some implementations, the media guidanceapplication may query the household bandwidth state database todetermine when access to the second media asset began and a duration ofthe second media asset (e.g., how long the second media asset is). Insome implementations, the media guidance application may query thehousehold bandwidth state database to determine a current play positionof the second user in the second media asset. The media guidanceapplication may compare the current play position or the access starttime with the duration of the second media asset. Based on thecomparison, the media guidance application may determine a timeremaining for the second user to finish accessing the second mediaasset.

The media guidance application may search a media asset database for aplurality of media assets having a remaining duration equal to orgreater than the time remaining for the second user to finish accessingthe second media asset. The plurality of media assets may correspond tomedia assets available for a different communications network (e.g., anon-cable on-demand network such as a cellular network or broadcastnetwork). For example, the media guidance application may search formedia assets stored in the media asset database for which a differencebetween the current time with the scheduled end time of a given one ofthe media assets is greater than the time remaining in the second mediaasset.

In some implementations, the media guidance application may limit thesearch for the plurality of media assets based on an attribute (e.g.,content characteristic) of the first media asset requested by the firstuser. For example, if the first media asset is associated with an actionattribute, the media guidance application may search the media assetdatabase for a plurality of media assets associated with the actionattribute and for which a difference between the current time with thescheduled end time of a given one of the media assets is greater thanthe time remaining in the second media asset.

Option to receive a reminder to access the first media asset 540 mayallow the user to schedule a reminder to access first media asset 540when there is sufficient household bandwidth available. For example, themedia guidance application, in response to receiving a user selection ofoption 540, may monitor the available household bandwidth. Specifically,the media guidance application may poll the household state databaseevery predetermined number of seconds, minutes, hours, days, orcombination thereof to retrieve the currently available householdbandwidth. The media guidance application may compare the retrievedavailable household bandwidth value every time to the minimum bandwidthvalue associated with the first media asset. In response to determiningthat the minimum bandwidth value is less than the retrieved bandwidthvalue, the media guidance application may trigger a reminder for thefirst user to access the first media asset. The reminder may bepresented to the first user on any device or devices associated with thefirst user (e.g., a mobile phone or other device the first user iscurrently using). The reminder may include an option to access the firstmedia asset and an indication that the currently available householdbandwidth is sufficient for accessing the first media asset using thecommunications network represented by the household bandwidth (e.g., theon-demand cable network).

Option to request to share viewing of the second media asset 550 mayallow the user to join the second user in viewing or accessing thesecond media asset being consumed by the second user instead ofaccessing the first media asset. Specifically, if access to the secondmedia asset is shared, the first user may access a media asset from thesame communications network as the second user without decreasing theamount of available household bandwidth. In response to receiving a userselection of option 550, the media guidance application mayautomatically begin presenting the second media asset to the first userusing a device associated with the first user. Specifically, the firstuser may begin accessing the second media asset from the current playposition that the second user is accessing using a first device (e.g., amobile phone) while the second user accesses the same media asset usinga second device (e.g., a tablet). In some implementations, in responseto receiving a user selection of option 550, the media guidanceapplication may send a request to the second user to share access to thesecond media asset. The second user may, in response to receiving therequest, enable or prevent shared access to the second media asset. Ifthe second user enables shared access, the media guidance applicationmay present the second media asset to the first user. If the second userprevents shared access, the media guidance application may not presentthe second media asset to the first user and may instead present amessage indicating shared access is unauthorized. The media guidanceapplication may present message 510 as a result of shared access beingprevented without including option 550.

In some embodiments, message 510 may be overlaid on top of any of videocontent 501 or other displays discussed above. For example, message 510may be presented on top of grid display 100 (FIG. 1 ) in response to themedia guidance application receiving a user selection of a media assetlisting (e.g., corresponding to an on-demand media asset).

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 600 for managingavailable bandwidth in a household in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. At step 610, a request to access a first media assetis received from a user device. For example, the media guidanceapplication may perform process 700 (FIG. 7 ) to receive the request toaccess the first media asset. Specifically, the media guidanceapplication may receive a user selection of a listing from grid 102 thatcorresponds to the first media asset (e.g., a media asset delivered viaan on-demand cable communications network).

At step 620, a minimum bandwidth value for accessing the first mediaasset is retrieved from stored metadata associated with the first mediaasset. For example, the media guidance application may perform process800 (FIG. 8 ) to retrieve the minimum bandwidth value for accessing thefirst media asset.

At step 630, the minimum bandwidth value is compared to a householdbandwidth value, wherein the household bandwidth value indicates abandwidth currently available in the household. For example, the mediaguidance application may perform process 900 (FIG. 9 ) to compare theminimum bandwidth value with the household bandwidth value.

At step 640, a determination is made as to whether the minimum bandwidthvalue is greater than the household bandwidth value. In response todetermining that the minimum bandwidth value is greater than thehousehold bandwidth value, the process proceeds to step 660; otherwisethe process proceeds to step 650.

At step 650, the requested first media asset is accessed. For example,the media guidance application may communicate with the source of thefirst media asset (e.g., the on-demand cable network) to initiate atransmission and receipt of the first media asset with the user device.

At step 660, bandwidth consumption values stored in a bandwidthconsumption field of a household bandwidth state database are searchedto identify a second media asset, being accessed in the household, thatis associated with a bandwidth consumption value that exceeds adifference between the minimum bandwidth value and the householdbandwidth value. For example, the media guidance application may performprocess 1000 (FIGS. 10A and 10B) to search bandwidth consumption valuesto identify the second media asset.

At step 670, a time remaining for completing access to the second mediaasset is determined. For example, the media guidance application mayperform process 1100 (FIG. 11 ) to determine a time remaining forcompleting access to the second media asset. Specifically, by performingprocess 1100, the media guidance application may determine or estimatehow long until the second user completes or finishes accessing thesecond media asset.

At step 680, duration values stored in a duration field of a media assetdatabase are searched to identify a third media asset associated with aduration value that is more than the time remaining. For example, themedia guidance application may perform process 1200 (FIG. 12 ) to searchduration values to identify a third media asset. Specifically, byperforming process 1200, the media guidance application may search foran alternate media asset the user can access instead of the first mediaasset. In some embodiments, the media assets searched for using process1200 may be limited to media assets available via a differentcommunications network (e.g., a cellular network) than thecommunications network of the first media asset. The alternate mediaasset may have a remaining duration that is greater than or equal to theremaining duration of the second media asset. In some implementations,the alternate media asset may be selected from a plurality based on anattribute or characteristic of the first media asset. For example, ifthe user requested an action movie that requires more bandwidth than iscurrently available in the household, the media guidance application maysearch for another action movie from another communications network, asthe alternate media asset, which has more time left than the secondmedia asset.

At step 690, a message that indicates the bandwidth currently availablein the household is insufficient to access the first media asset andthat has an option to access the third media asset instead of the firstmedia asset is generated for display on the user device. For example,the media guidance application may present message 510 (FIG. 5 ) to theuser who requested the first media asset.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 700 for receiving arequest to access a first media asset in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. At step 710, the process for receiving arequest to access a first media asset begins.

At step 720, a signal from a user input device with a selection commandis detected. For example, the media guidance application may receive asignal indicating the user pressed a SELECT button on a remote controlor that the user tapped on a touch screen display at a particularposition.

At step 730, screen data indicating content currently being displayed byvideo circuitry is retrieved. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve data representing grid 102 and where on grid102 a cursor is currently positioned.

At step 740, coordinates on the screen corresponding to the selectioncommand are identified. For example, the media guidance application mayidentify the coordinates of a cursor on the screen and/or the locationwhere the user tapped on the touchscreen.

At step 750, screen data corresponding to the identified coordinates isidentified. For example, the media guidance application may process theretrieved screen data to identify what cell of grid 102 is positioned atthe identified coordinates (e.g., where the cursor was positioned orwhere the user tapped on the screen).

At step 760, the identified screen data is processed to identify a mediaasset listing corresponding to the identified screen data. For example,the media guidance application may retrieve the name of the programlisting that is in the identified cell of grid 102.

At step 770, an indication that the identified media asset listing hasbeen selected is stored in memory.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 800 for retrieving,from stored metadata associated with the first media asset, a minimumbandwidth value for accessing the first media asset in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. At step 810, the process forretrieving, from stored metadata associated with the first media asset,a minimum bandwidth value for accessing the first media asset begins.

At step 820, a query for a media listings database that includes anidentifier of the first media asset is generated.

At step 830, the generated query is transmitted to the media listingsdatabase. The media listings database may be referred to as the mediaasset database interchangeably.

At step 840, a data structure is received from the media listingsdatabase that includes multiple fields of information for the firstmedia asset. The fields of information may include a minimum accessbandwidth field, a title field, a duration field, an attributes field, adescription field, a content source field, and/or a communicationsnetwork field.

At step 850, one of the multiple fields that represents minimum accessbandwidth is identified.

At step 860, data indicating the minimum access bandwidth is retrievedfrom the identified field of the received data structure.

At step 870, the retrieved data indicating the minimum access bandwidthis stored as the minimum bandwidth value in memory.

FIG. 9 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 900 for comparingthe minimum bandwidth value to a household bandwidth value, wherein thehousehold bandwidth value indicates a bandwidth currently available inthe household in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Atstep 910, the process for comparing the minimum bandwidth value to ahousehold bandwidth value, wherein the household bandwidth valueindicates a bandwidth currently available in the household, begins.

At step 920, a query for a household bandwidth state database thatincludes an identifier of the household is generated.

At step 930, the generated query is transmitted to the householdbandwidth state database.

At step 940, a data structure is received from the household bandwidthstate database that includes multiple fields of information for thehousehold bandwidth state.

At step 950, one of the multiple fields that represents a currenthousehold bandwidth value is identified.

At step 960, data indicating the current household bandwidth value isretrieved from the identified field of the received data structure.

At step 970, the data indicating the minimum access bandwidth isretrieved from memory.

At step 980, a determination is made as to whether the retrieved dataindicating the current household bandwidth value is greater than thedata indicating the minimum access bandwidth. In response to determiningthat the retrieved data indicating the current household bandwidth valueis greater than the data indicating the minimum access bandwidth, theprocess proceeds to step 982, otherwise, the process proceeds to step984.

At step 982, data indicating current household bandwidth value isgreater than the data indicating the minimum access bandwidth is stored.

At step 984, data indicating current household bandwidth value is notgreater than the data indicating the minimum access bandwidth is stored.

FIGS. 10A and 10B are a flow diagram of an illustrative process 1000 forsearching bandwidth consumption values stored in a bandwidth consumptionfield of a household bandwidth state database, to identify a secondmedia asset, being accessed in the household, that is associated with abandwidth consumption value that exceeds a difference between theminimum bandwidth value and the household bandwidth value in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure. At step 1010, the process forsearching bandwidth consumption values stored in a bandwidth consumptionfield of a household bandwidth state database, to identify a secondmedia asset, currently being accessed in the household, that isassociated with a bandwidth consumption value that exceeds a differencebetween the minimum bandwidth value and the household bandwidth value,begins.

At step 1020, the minimum bandwidth value associated with the firstmedia asset is retrieved from memory.

At step 1030, the current household bandwidth value is retrieved frommemory.

At step 1040, a difference between the minimum bandwidth value and thecurrent household bandwidth value is computed.

At step 1050, a pointer to a first household bandwidth state databaseentry associated with a given media asset is stored.

At step 1060, a current bandwidth consumption value associated with thegiven media asset is retrieved from a bandwidth field of the entryidentified by the pointer.

At step 1070, a determination is made as to whether the retrievedcurrent bandwidth consumption value associated with the given mediaasset is greater than the computed difference between the minimumbandwidth value and the current household bandwidth value. In responseto determining that the retrieved current bandwidth consumption valueassociated with the given media asset is greater than the computeddifference, the process proceeds to step 1080, otherwise the processproceeds to step 1090.

At step 1080, a pointer identifying the given media asset is added to alist of media assets to be monitored for bandwidth access.

At step 1090, a determination is made as to whether the stored pointeris identifying the last entry in the household bandwidth state database.In response to determining that the stored pointer is identifying thelast entry, the process ends, otherwise the process proceeds to step1092.

At step 1092, the stored pointer is advanced to the next entry in thehousehold bandwidth state database.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 1100 fordetermining a time remaining for completing access to the second mediaasset in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. At step1110, the process for determining a time remaining for completing accessto the second media asset begins.

At step 1120, the pointer is retrieved from a first entry in the list ofmedia assets to be monitored for bandwidth access.

At step 1130, a query to the household bandwidth state database for thestart timestamp field of the entry and a duration field associated withthe retrieved pointer is generated.

At step 1140, the query is transmitted to the household bandwidth statedatabase.

At step 1150, the value of the duration field and the start timestampfield of the entry associated with the retrieved pointer indicating whattime access to the corresponding media asset began is received from thehousehold bandwidth state database.

At step 1160, a difference between the current time and the starttimestamp value is computed.

At step 1170, a difference between the duration value and the computeddifference between the current time and the start timestamp value iscomputed.

At step 1180, the computed difference is stored as the time remaining inthe list of media assets to be monitored for bandwidth access.

At step 1190, a determination is made as to whether the pointer isidentifying the last entry in the list of media assets to be monitoredfor bandwidth access. In response to determining that the pointer isidentifying the last entry, the process proceeds to step 1194, otherwisethe process proceeds to step 1192.

At step 1192, the stored pointer is advanced to the next entry in thelist of media assets to be monitored for bandwidth access.

At step 1194, a second media asset in the list having a smallest valuefor the computed time remaining is identified.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram of an illustrative process 1200 for searchingduration values stored in a duration field of a media asset database toidentify a third media asset associated with a duration value that ismore than the time remaining in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. At step 1210, the process for searching duration valuesstored in a duration field of a media asset database to identify a thirdmedia asset associated with a duration value that is more than the timeremaining begins.

At step 1220, the time remaining value associated with the second mediaasset is retrieved from memory.

At step 1230, a pointer to the first media asset database entryassociated with a given media asset is stored.

At step 1240, a duration value associated with the given media asset isretrieved from a duration field of the entry identified by the pointer.

At step 1250, a determination is made as to whether the retrievedduration value associated with the given media asset is greater than theretrieved time remaining value associated with the second media asset.In response to determining that the retrieved duration value associatedwith the given media asset is greater than the retrieved time remainingvalue, the process proceeds to step 1260, otherwise the process proceedsto step 1270.

At step 1260, a pointer identifying the given media asset is added to alist of media assets available for access instead of the first mediaasset.

At step 1270, a determination is made as to whether the stored pointeris identifying the last entry in the media asset database. In responseto determining that the pointer is identifying the last entry, theprocess proceeds to step 1290, otherwise the process proceeds to step1280.

At step 1280, the stored pointer is advanced to the next entry in themedia asset database.

At step 1290, a third media asset in the list having a smallest valuefor the duration value is identified.

The above-described embodiments of the present disclosure are presentedfor purposes of illustration and not of limitation, and the presentdisclosure is limited only by the claims that follow. Furthermore, itshould be noted that the features and limitations described in any oneembodiment may be applied to any other embodiment herein, and flowchartsor examples relating to one embodiment may be combined with any otherembodiment in a suitable manner, done in different orders, or done inparallel. Furthermore, as referred herein, the term “in response to”means initiated as a result of. For example, a first action beingperformed in response to another action may include interstitial stepsbetween the first action and the second action. As referred herein, theterm “directly in response to” means caused by. For example, a firstaction being performed directly in response to another action may notinclude interstitial steps between the first action and the secondaction. In addition, the systems and methods described herein may beperformed in real time. It should also be noted, the systems and/ormethods described above may be applied to, or used in accordance with,other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for recommending alternate content basedon available bandwidth, the method comprising: receiving, from a userdevice, a request to stream a first media asset; comparing a comparisonbandwidth value to a first bandwidth value required to stream the firstmedia asset, wherein the comparison bandwidth value is indicative ofbandwidth currently available in a network; in response to determiningthat the first bandwidth value is greater than the comparison bandwidthvalue, identifying a second media asset based on a second bandwidthvalue required to stream the second media asset, wherein the identifyingthe second media asset comprises: determining a time remaining until atleast the first bandwidth value will be available in the network;comparing the time remaining with a duration value of the second mediaasset; comparing the second bandwidth value to the comparison bandwidthvalue; determining that the duration value is greater than the timeremaining; and determining that the second bandwidth value is less thanthe comparison bandwidth value; and generating for output arecommendation for the second media asset.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein determining the time remaining until at least the firstbandwidth value will be available in the network comprises: identifyinga stream of a third media asset utilizing at least the first bandwidthvalue in the network; determining a remaining duration value of thestream of the third media asset; and identifying the remaining durationvalue as the time remaining until at least the first bandwidth valuewill be available in the network.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising: storing an initial value for the comparison bandwidth valuein a bandwidth state database; receiving a request to stream the thirdmedia asset before receiving the request to stream the first mediaasset; retrieving, from stored metadata associated with the third mediaasset, a third bandwidth value required for streaming the third mediaasset; storing the third bandwidth value for streaming the third mediaasset in a bandwidth consumption field of the bandwidth state databaseassociated with the third media asset; and decreasing the initial valuefor the comparison bandwidth value by the third bandwidth value forstreaming the third media asset to determine the comparison bandwidthvalue.
 4. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the time remainingfurther comprises: retrieving a current play position of the third mediaasset; and computing a difference between a duration of the third mediaasset and the current play position to determine the remaining durationvalue.
 5. The method of claim 2, wherein the recommendation furthercomprises an option to terminate streaming the third media asset inorder to enable streaming the first media asset.
 6. The method of claim1, wherein the recommendation for the second media asset includes anoption to stream the second media asset instead of the first mediaasset, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving a userselection of the option to stream the second media asset; and inresponse to receiving the user selection, generating for display thesecond media asset.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving, fromthe user device, the request to stream the first media asset furthercomprises: receiving a user selection of a quality associated with thefirst media asset; and processing stored metadata to identify the firstbandwidth value that is required to stream the selected quality.
 8. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the recommendation includes an alternateoption to stream the first media asset over a second network.
 9. Asystem for recommending alternate content based on available bandwidth,the system comprising: control circuitry configured to: receive, from auser device, a request to stream a first media asset; compare acomparison bandwidth value to a first bandwidth value required to streamthe first media asset, wherein the comparison bandwidth value isindicative of bandwidth currently available in a network; in response todetermining that the first bandwidth value is greater than thecomparison bandwidth value, identify a second media asset based on asecond bandwidth value required to stream the second media asset,wherein to identify the second media asset, the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine a time remaining until at least thefirst bandwidth value will be available in the network; compare the timeremaining with a duration value of the second media asset compare thesecond bandwidth value to the comparison bandwidth value; determine thatthe duration value is greater than the time remaining; and determinethat the second bandwidth value is less than the comparison bandwidthvalue; and generate for output a recommendation for the second mediaasset.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein to determine the timeremaining until at least the first bandwidth value will be available inthe network, the control circuitry is further configured to: identify astream of a third media asset utilizing at least the first bandwidthvalue in the network; determine a remaining duration value of the streamof the third media asset; and identify the remaining duration value asthe time remaining until at least the first bandwidth value will beavailable in the network.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: store an initial value forthe comparison bandwidth value in a bandwidth state database; receive arequest to stream the third media asset before receiving the request tostream the first media asset; retrieve, from stored metadata associatedwith the third media asset, a third bandwidth value required forstreaming the third media asset; store the third bandwidth value forstreaming the third media asset in a bandwidth consumption field of thebandwidth state database associated with the third media asset; anddecrease the initial value for the comparison bandwidth value by thethird bandwidth value for streaming the third media asset to determinethe comparison bandwidth value.
 12. The system of claim 10, wherein todetermine the time remaining, the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to: retrieve a current play position of the third mediaasset; and compute a difference between a duration of the third mediaasset and the current play position to determine the remaining durationvalue.
 13. The system of claim 10, wherein the recommendation includesan option to terminate streaming the third media asset in order toenable streaming the first media asset.
 14. The system of claim 9,wherein the recommendation for the second media asset includes an optionto stream the second media asset instead of the first media asset, andwherein the control circuitry is further configured to: receive a userselection of the option to stream the second media asset; and inresponse to receiving the user selection, generate for display thesecond media asset.
 15. The system of claim 9, wherein to receive, fromthe user device, the request to stream the first media asset, thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: receive a user selection ofa quality associated with the first media asset; and process storedmetadata to identify the first bandwidth value that is required tostream the selected quality.
 16. The system of claim 9, wherein therecommendation includes an alternate option to stream the first mediaasset over a second network.